Maryland – The Pull Of The Land

In recent months it has been my joy to have renewed acquaintances with one of the “big boys” who lived in El Pao in my early years. When I say “big boys” I mean he was a few years older than me during the phase in childhood where a few years might as well be an eternity! But we are members of the same generation.

Michael John Ashe II (Mike) came to El Pao as a little boy with his beautiful family in 1953, the year of my birth. I remember his sister and twin brothers, who were closer to my age back then, when even 2 years was a big deal.

It’s been great to have gotten back in touch with Mike, even if only through email.

He has graciously agreed to let me post his reminiscences in this blog, something which I will do over the coming weeks and months, with a few interruptions here and there.

His writings speak for themselves, but if I have something to add I’ll do so in parentheses identified by “RMB”

For now, I’ll only say that Mike’s family is a microcosm of the many families who came to El Pao and similar mining camps throughout South America in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The backgrounds varied greatly and the adventurous spirit was very high.

I know you will enjoy these.

Thank you, Mike!

Michael John Ashe II

Foreword

Personal Narrative of Living in a Mining Camp

Now in my seventies, I thought it be best to delve into my memories of a an extraordinary childhood adventure before they escape me.

Memories of Mining Camp living was akin to Time Traveling from a modern world to a far more basic and remote jungle life.

My parents, Herbert Carroll Ashe and Gloria McCluskey Ashe provided me with this great adventure to which I dedicate this humble accounting of our camp life together.

My grandmother Mama-Mary Ellen McCluskey I will always be thankful for her unconditional love.

To my El Pao classmate, Cheryl Serrao who suffered greatly from a genetic disorder that ended her life in her early teens. You are gone but not forgotten.

To Mike Ashley, Richard Barnes, and my wife Maria Cristina Ashe for their participation, help, and inspiration.

To my children and grandchildren, you are our greatest gift from God. Your love has always been unconditional and cherished by Nana and I. You have made us very happy. God bless you always.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage on retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Mining Camp-Memories-from my childhood’s perspective (Risk Takers and Adventurers)

Prologue

Pat Korb and Mike Korb were kind to send me an audio interview of their life in El Pao (1969-1970) a mining camp situated 36 miles south of the Orinoco River in the state of Bolivar. This prompted me to prepare these series of short stories about my experiences in growing up in several mining camps but primarily in El Pao circa 1950s.

In the 1950s the State of Bolívar was sparsely populated. Cities and towns in the state included Ciudad Bolívar, Puerto Ordaz, Upata, San Félix, and Palúa. Ciudad Bolívar (aka CB) was the largest city and the state’s capital. CB’s population was less than 50,000 then and over 400,000 now. Palúa, Puerto Ordaz, Upata, and San Félix population I would estimate at less than 12,000. Now, a new city, Ciudad Guayana (formerly Puerto Ordaz, Palúa, and San Félix) population is about 1 million. The total population of the State of Bolívar is more than 1.4 million now. The country’s birth rate is one of the highest in the world. Needless to say, the State of Bolívar is a much different place now and most likely not for the best.

Pictures of Angel Falls — Water falls from a flat-topped top mountain (Tepuis) Auyan Tepui (Devils Mountain) in the State of Bolivar. The highest waterfall in the world which drops over 3000 ft. In the 1950’s and today, travel is limited to a fly by with a small aircraft. Dense jungle surrounding the falls and given its remoteness, the trip would be very risky. We never went there.

Chapter #1-Our First Mining Camp-Inspiration Arizona:

Before moving to Venezuela, Dad got a job working for an Anaconda Copper Inspiration Arizona, starting as a mucker (as a reference Inspiration lies between the towns of Globe and Miami). The company furnished houses for the workers. The only thing I can remember was that there was a stove in the middle of the living room that I got burned on. Inspiration was a very typical company-run camp at an altitude of about 3,500 ft located in a beautiful part of Arizona. The area was isolated from the rest of Arizona and was considered as the state’s frontier, mainly due to its proximity to the famous San Carlos Indian Reservation. The towns in the area remained frontier outposts well into the 20^th Century. Plenty of murders, lynching and really bad hombres. All of which was part of the lore of American Cowboy and the Western lifestyle. Even now Globe is considered to be the most dangerous city in Arizona. The western movies captured the conflicts and violence between settlers and Apache warriors like Geronimo and Cochise, but there were many others (notice how the bad guys were always the Indians maybe not a fair representation of history). They also captured the lives of colorful characters like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Big Nose Kate (hands down the most colorful woman in the frontier west). I must say that the movies captured the most important stars- the beautiful western landscapes-John Ford’s work was the best.

Picture of Malachite Quartz and Blue ball Azurite from a mine in Globe.

In 1950 during a routine medical checkup, it was determined that Dad had a mass in his left lung, that needed to be dealt with. His doctor suggested that he go to Mayo Clinic (Rochester MN) since lung operations of this type were rare at that time. Actually, the operation they performed was one of the first lobectomy at Mayo. It was a brutal operation with a very large incision on his back (the procedure today is less invasive since it is done from the front). The left lung has only two lobes while the right has three lobes so they ended up removing half his left lung. Thankfully the mass was benign. My mother would always tell me to take care of Dad, as we might not have him around for too long, he ended up living to 91!

I had to stay with my Grandparents in Cananea Mexico (A mining town also operated by Anaconda where my grandfather worked) while my parents went to Mayo. My mother returned by bus to Cananea while Dad remained in the hospital recovering. Aunt Charlene was a nurse at Mayo and had just married my Uncle Don. Their honeymoon plan was to drive to Cananea but that did include Dad tagging alone. Dad would also be complaining about how much the incision hurt during the trip but Aunt Charlene always felt that he was milking it!

The drive from Inspiration to Cananea took about 5 hours so we would make the trip quite often which was particularly fun for me once we crossed into Mexico. The road from Naco to Cananea at that time was not paved and you would have to cross a series of arroyos (steep and not so steep gullies formed by fast -flowing water) most of which were dry or partially filled with water. There were no bridges so the cars would have to enter the arroyos. When it rained, we would have to wait until the water subsided in order to pass. For me the trip was always a great adventure. On one trip Dad and Uncle Don took me jack rabbit hunting. The jack rabbits would stand up on their hind legs which provided an easy target for the hunter. I think I was 4 years old at the time and my dad sited the rabbit and I pulled the trigger. I remember crying and was unconsolable on the way back to Cananea after killing and retrieving that bunny rabbit. At my uncle’s 90^th birthday he reminded me of that hunting trip which apparently left a long-lasting impression on both of us!

My grandparents house (owned by Anaconda) was located on a ridge just outside of town. There was a Baseball Park nearby where the Cananea Mineros played as part of the Arizona Mexico League Mineros and won the league in 1955/56. I was lucky to see Claudio Solano once, he played third base and hit over 200HR for the Mineros. Globe Miami Arizona Miners were also part of the league. Any time I would go to Cananea I would visit the park. The Cincinnati Reds were affiliated with the Yuma’s team in that league. I don’t think that the Cananea Mineros played ball after 1958?

There were about 8 company houses on the ridge where they lived and most folks had horses and barns out back. My grandparents didn’t have horses but raised fryer chickens as well as egg layers and turkeys. They had a maid for twenty years; her name was Anita A wonderful woman (anyone and everyone that knew her loved her) I remember she would be in charge of killing the chickens (ringing their necks). One thing for sure chicken/eggs were always on the menu.

Naco on the US side crossing into the State of Sonora Mexico

Both my uncle Don and Dad worked for Anaconda for a short time. I think both felt that opportunities were limited but it did end up giving both a good head start in their careers.

Chapter 2-Second Mining Camp-El Pao Venezuela

Infrastructure

The El Pao ore deposit was discovered in 1920. Iron Mines Company of Venezuela (IMCOV) a wholly owned subsidiary Bethlehem Mines was formed after WWII. In the late 1940’s IMCOV began Engineering Procurement and Construction of the El Pao ore deposit and supporting logistics facilities 1) Rail 36 miles/Locomotives /Gondola Cars used to transport ore to Palúa, 2) two port facilities a river port at Palúa (capable of holding 850,000 tons of ore and seaport at Puerto de Hierro and 3) a fleet of river ore carriers.

Sparrows point shipyard in Baltimore Maryland built 6 ore carriers for IMCOV. The ore carrier Punta Anamaya was the first of eventually five sister ships that were built for the Iron Mines Company of Venezuela. These small ships, each 381-feet long and 64-feet wide were expressly designed and built for service on the Orinoco River in Venezuela to haul iron ore from Palúa to Puerto de Hierro (8,500-ton capacity) and then to be transshipped by ocean-going ore carriers (26,000-ton Capacity) primarily to Plants in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Sparrows Point, Maryland. IMCOV also maintained an office in Caracas (capital of the republic) to interface with the Venezuelan Government.

I’d see them in port at Palúa and on the Orinoco. I would always be amazed at how big and beautiful they were.

Just the logistics of getting equipment through the jungle was a monumental task not to mention the amount of planning and engineering supporting this major undertaking which was extremely expensive. Potable water from the Caroni, Fuel to Run the Electric Generator at all locations, not to mention the camp and ports’ housing roads and infrastructure. Don’t know if the returns justified the investment?

Puerto de Hierro IMCOV Deep water port in the state of Sucre.

(Will continue with next section: “Moving In”)

Any blog on Venezuela must include posts on mining. In the future, I hope to have a post or two from guests with more expertise on the more technical aspects of the mining industry in Venezuela and their complex engineering facets. Meanwhile, we can certainly post things of interest or of general introduction.

Depending on your sources, Venezuela was one of the world’s largest producers (some sources had it as the largest) of direct-reduced iron (iron ore which is reduced to a smaller form, usually pellets by means of a specially formulated gas). It was in the top ten of the world’s producers of iron ore, aluminum, and bauxite. And it still ranks as possessing one of the world’s largest known reserves of crude oil, second only to Saudi Arabia, although some say the United States has surpassed both.

It holds one of the world’s largest reserves of gold and was second only to South Africa in diamond production. Countless gems and precious stones have been mined there, especially in the interior state of Bolivar and the giant Territorio Amazonas.

The attentive reader will note the use of the past tense in the second and third paragraphs above. The past tense is used because extraction and production have suffered precipitous declines since the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I would not be surprised by the discovery of vast new deposits and reserves, alongside the return of successful mining and production, once the investment climate improves. (Meanwhile, we should not be surprised by the intense interest focused on Venezuela by China and Russia.)

In 1956, Time Magazine had at least two issues on iron ore mining in Venezuela. The article in its November 19 issue began thusly:

“Inland from Venezuela’s Caribbean coast some 200 miles, the swift, black Caroni River plunges into the chocolate-colored Orinoco. Southward from this junction of two mighty streams lie jungles and sandy scrublands studded with low, reddish mountains. This poor-looking expanse is one of the world’s great storehouses of iron. West of the Caroni looms Cerro Bolivar, blanketed with 500 million tons of high-grade ore. Farther west lies another iron mountain, El Trueno, endowed with 150 million tons. On the other side of the Caroni, Bethlehem Steel Corp. gathers up 3,000,000 tons of ore a year from El Pao….”

Poetically and dramatically, the article captures the vastness of the country’s riches in iron ore alone. The country is “awash” with natural resources, even including coltan. We are told that Venezuela is one of only seven countries in the world that have known coltan reserves in sufficient quantities to export. It is a black mineral that is used in mobile (cell) phones and computer chips.

According to recent publications, metal production is at all-time lows; even oil has suffered catastrophically. Here is a recent headline from a technical publication which will suffice for all: “Venezuela’s Iron Ore Mines Operate At Less Than 10% Of Capacity“.

The iron mines of El Pao, where I was born, had massive structures such as a giant ore crusher which was loaded from trucks carrying about 30 tons of ore from the dynamite sites. The crusher ground the ore down to chunks of about 8 inches. Then its covered conveyer carried the reduced ore to a secondary crusher which crushed it further down to 2 or 3 inches. Finally, that ore was poured into 34-car trains which transported 4,500 tons of crushed ore 35 miles daily to the company port on the Orinoco River from whence it was shipped to a deeper water port on the Caribbean coast, transshipped to larger oceangoing vessels, and delivered to Sparrows Point, Maryland, the world’s largest steel mill at the time.

**Clearing through the jungles from the Orinoco to the camp site. Arduous work, which at times brought mishaps and frights**

**train loaded with ore headed to the company port, Palúa, on the Orinoco**

**Sparrows Point, Maryland. At the time, the largest steel mill in the world**

That accounts for a fraction of the investment required by one company to successfully extract and produce steel. To that, must be added roads, bridges, hundreds of houses for miners and their families, schools, churches, recreational facilities, commissaries, airports, and more. Multiply that by the dozens of American and European companies who came to Venezuela for iron ore, petroleum, and other minerals, and you begin to get an idea of the gargantuan investment made in the country in the first fifty or so years of the 20th century. For example, US Steel’s investment greatly surpassed Bethlehem Steel’s. And so did the oil companies’.

**Some of the home office staff bidding farewell to one of their number who was going on annual leave**

Circa 1958, my beloved aunt visited us from Miami, Florida. Although a busy homemaker, she was of that generation who would, nevertheless, find time to experience and appreciate the natural world that surrounds us. So, naturally, we would go on day excursions to different parts of Guayana. Once, in the interior, as we drove over a small stream she asked my father if he’d stop the car so that we could walk around a bit. We got out and made our way to that stream and my aunt promptly took her shoes off and waded in, carefully stepping on the rocks and smooth stones under the water.

“There are gems in this place,” she said.

I, regrettably, never learned why she thought that, although I do recall spirited conversations between my parents, my godmother, and my aunt about the possibilities. Then, all possibilities having been exhausted in conversation as we wandered around, we embarked and continued on our journey.

A few years later, my father brought a newspaper report noting that a gem mining concession had been granted in that spot, which became a profitable enterprise.

A country might be supremely rich in natural resources; it may have people, like my aunt, who can discern the riches under the surface. But if it discourages investment and healthy incentives, what can we say about all those natural resources other than, “Why cumbereth it the ground?”

Or, “Why bury your talent?”

Tag: Maryland

Mining Camp Memories — Foreword, Prologue, Chapter #1, and first part of Chapter #2

Michael John Ashe II

Mining Camp-Memories-from my childhood’s perspective (Risk Takers and Adventurers)

Mining